Unable to run MMC in author mode on Windows 7

A strange error preventing me from opening the management console (MMC) started appearing recently. This is probably a result of some Windows Update.

"You cannot open Microsoft Management Console in author mode because of current computer policies."

There was nothing set in the policies, though, that is visible from GPEdit. Fortunately, the solution is simple: set the registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\Microsoft\MMC\RestrictAuthorMode to 0.

Source: link

Android Instant Apps

OK, if this is not so new it is at least unexpected. From my side, at least.

We've had applets, Silverlight, and the myriad of JavaScript frameworks and libraries. However, the way Android apps are evolving seems rather interesting. I guess this is how apps were supposed to work. The "runner" downloads just the portion required to work.

Sounds like a hybrid between an HTML and mobile app. Let's see if and how will it work. Exciting to try to enable this in some existing apps and get out of the cycle of committing changes, merging, compiling, publishing, and waiting for beta testers to run the app for a while, and then the regular users to update. And some of them never do.


Source: Android Instant Apps

Unit Testing with C#

It is refreshing, after all these years, to see the same frameworks around. Matured, they are now recommended as the best options for unit testing in the C# world.

There's a newcomer, though - AutoFixture. Time to add it to the arsenal.



In summary:

• xUnit
• Moq
• AutoFixture

are the things you need for unit and integration testing. Visual Studio nowadays includes a decent test runner GUI. It only takes installing the runner package for xUnit to recognize the tests.



Source: The Holy Trinity of C# Unit Testing (link)

Google Music Manager - "Could not identify your computer"

Here's a note in case I forget what the actual reason for this message was or how it was resolved.

After not using Google Music Manager for a while, I tried to log in to upload a couple of recordings to share. Unfortunately, I could not log in on the PC. It was giving me the "Could not identify your computer" error message after going through the 2-step authentication.

Reading online pointed out that, for whatever reason, Music Manager clings to a device's MAC address. This was a good pointer.

Checking the network device properties / configure / advanced, there was only one property available - Network Address. Fortunately, this is exactly the one I needed. It was set to Not Present, as it normally should. As I was connecting using USB tethering, I guess this value was never really set.

So I set the value manually to 1F-2E-3D-4C-5B-6A. This is a simple value that follows the specs. And, voila! It worked.

In the meantime, I also tried switching to a Wi-Fi connection but that did not work somehow. In the properties, there was no property for Network Address so I could not see what it was nor modify it.

Update 2017-11-25: Music Manager was unable to connect out of the blue. The settings were all the same. This time I had to connect to a Wi-Fi access point, reinstall Music Manager and it connected fine. Then I switched to USB tethered connection again and it worked.

Public ClipArt Libraries

Here is a list of public clipart libraries:

• Open Clipart (link), a large collection of public .SVG drawings

More link collections:

• Free Vector Graphics (link) 1
• Free Vector Graphics (link) 2

Quickly test SQL connection

The quickest way to test an SQL connection is to create a new file with .UDL extension.

Then simply double-click on it to open and a connection properties window will open up, allowing to test a server connection.

Unfortunately, this will not help if you need to use integrated authentication but have to impersonate another user.